I personally prefer Gigabyte over Asus when buying a lower end board. Asus firmware/BIOS has never been that great at launch, especially on the low end and sometimes questionable on the higher end. If you can wait for a revision though, it's usually fine.

I prefer ASUS and they certainly have the lion's share of the market. There is a reason for that....the consumer has decided that ASUS is the one. Perception is reality. When one considers the return rate of mobos and the fact that less ASUS come back, IMO, there is no other choice that I would feel comfortable with.